LuckyPete's Privvy

New Blog --You, Me & Baby #3

LuckyPete — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:13:00 +0000

Our new blog is up and running -- You, Me & Baby #3.

It's a chronicle of our life -- from the very beginning -- with our baby girl, Jocelyn Ruth. She's due any day now and I can't wait to see her!

Be sure to visit and keep up with our growing family...

Coming soon...

LuckyPete — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:17:00 +0000

As you read in the last post, we are expecting and on May 1st Kelsey and I went to the Justice o' the Peace and got hitched. We're still having a "wedding celebration" on July 1st so check your email spam filters for our invitation, as it seems to have gotten caught by many of those who have responded. If you don't think you got one, send me an email directly and I'll send you a link and password ASAP!

Other than that happy news, we went and had our first ultrasound and we got to see our little "bean". Here's a picture of our little girl (or atleast the doctor is 95% sure since she didn't see an extra appendage). As you might suspect, we're extremely excited about the big news!

Also, I've got the kids for nearly a month and we've nearly completed our first week together. It's been great having them here. We left at 4:30am on Saturday the 17th of June to drive over (via Shreveport and 1-20) to Jackson, MS to pick them up and haul them back. Twelve hours and 800+ miles later, they were in Dallas with us! Hayden's been enjoying playing World of Warcraft (his little gnome warrior is already level 13) and Baylie has been playing with Doogan and asking to go to the pool every 10 minutes. I'm working from home (goin' in on days when Kels works late) and just having a good time with the kiddos.

Other than that...things are going well. We're going to be starting a new "married couple/family" blog at our new website -- http://www.scottandkelsey.com/ -- in the next couple of weeks, but I still need to work on hooking up some of the code.

And baby makes three...

LuckyPete — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:42:00 +0000

Yes...if you hadn't already heard (we told a number of you this weekend while in Missouri and Illinois visiting), Kelsey and I found out on Easter Sunday morning that we're expecting! We initially were not going to tell anyone, but I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer -- I am so darn excited! So with this big news, we've decided that were going to go and get hitched (to make it official and get Kels on my insurance) on May 1st -- aka Mayday!

As of the writing of this entry, Kelsey is about 7 weeks along and starting to feel like she's pregnant with indigestion and waves of nausea. But it's so worth it to have a little one by December!

That's it for now...

Well heck!

LuckyPete — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:57:00 +0000

How quickly I return to my ways. I guess it's just hard to sit down for 10 or 15 minutes a day and type up something about what's going on. So much so that I've outright neglected my duties here -- to my friends and family that read this blog.

Anyway...things are good here in Dallas. Work is busy. I'm being put on projects where the management knows they're up against a wall to get the project done in "record time", so they put Skip (my code-buddy) and I on it. We've been pulling long hours, but it's kinda rewarding...

I'm trying to keep up with a bunch of side-projects including the Ozark Regional YMCA website that my sister Carolyn (aka KoA) has been pushing me to finish. It's a redesign, with a content management system and it's taken a lot longer to work on that I had originally anticipated. I also finally got to a point on the Passport Experts website -- I've got a mockup of the site at http://pesite.rsge.com -- where I'm done with the coding and just waiting for content.

Kels and I will be driving out of town tomorrow morning to head north (and east) to Missouri and Illinois. My darlin' Kelsey will be 21 on the 23rd, so we're headed up there to see her family (her mom & brother are even coming down) as well as spend time with my family in Missouri. It's the second anniversary of my mom's passing, so we're going to spend some time with my dad, visit mom's grave and just reminice.

Wish us luck!

Delusions of Free-time

LuckyPete — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:31:00 +0000

Haha! Well, you caught me Dave. I said way back on 4/3/06, in the short post entitled "Dear Blogger..." that I'd post later that day with the gory details of my last few weeks of busy-ness. And, well...I got busy again and didn't post that post that I said I would post. So, here it is -- all of it.

About three weeks ago, life was seemingly normal for me at work. Until, the boss came over to the little space I call "the cube" and addressed Skip (my buddy and fellow outcast-coder) with a proposal. A new business group at EMSI (we'll call them HSD) had acquired some new business -- namely BNSF and CSX Railroads -- with a system that would revolutionize the way that drug and alcohol testing was conducted for their employees. A system that would merge scheduling those tests with the actual lab results. Needless to say, one system existed and the other system needed to be built. So, Skip and I were charged with the effort which I had estimated would take approximately 150 man-hours to complete (that's a little over three weeks). We were given two options: a) Get it to test in two weeks = $500 bonus; OR b) Get it to production in two weeks = $1k bonus.

After working through spring break, planned vacation time and putting in 146 hours in two weeks. We rolled the iSchedule system (actually two separate apps) -- composed of a web front-end and a system that reads email attachments sent from the BNSF/CSX into our database back-end -- into production on March 27th with much to-do! And...we got our bonus money...the full amount.

This past week was actually nice...fixing bugs, adding enhancements to the system and working a normal work week. Oh...and I actually played WoW again for the first time in nearly two months the other night. Crazy, huh? :P

Dear Blogger...

LuckyPete — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:47:00 +0000

I've missed you. I seems like only yesterday, I used to blog here everyday. Alas, my busy life has caused me to stray. I'll try not to do that again! Alright...back to our regularly scheduled program. I'll post here later today and give the gory details.

Another weekend gone

LuckyPete — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:36:00 +0000

It just flabbergasts me at how quickly the two days that comprise a weekend fly by when compared to the five weekdays that occur before. This weekend, of course, was no exception. I spent too much money on entertainment and food and not enough time with Kelsey. I did however, get to see Kelsey's face light up almost all day long as we attented the Bridal Expo at Dallas Market Hall on Saturday, as well as watch some great football (AFC & NFC conference playoffs).

First, the Expo. Kels convinced me that we needed to go, if for nothing else than getting some leads on places to have our wedding & reception (for those of you just tuning in, we got engaged on Christmas Eve) and get some ideas for how to "do" the whole thing. We headed downtown, stood in line to get in, and then walked around for three hours -- sampling cake, picking up scads of info on limos, locations, flowers, etc. The highlight of the trip was watching Kels put on wedding gowns. Oh my! She makes such a beautiful bride. It just made everything so REAL...and I'm extremely excited about it! We also, after some discussion, have set a tenative date of July 1st for the "hitchin" -- that is dependent on a number of factors and we're working to nail it down ASAP.

Now on to football. All I can say is "Wow! I certainly wouldn't have picked the winners like they turned out, but the games were fabulous to watch. So...for the AFC Championship it'll be Pittsburgh at Denver and the NFC Championship will put Carolina at Seattle. Whodathunkit?

Yet another weekend is gone, but this week should be good and keep me plenty busy. Here's to a good week!

*edited because Kelsey felt the original post was a bit "heavy" on the football talk. After reading it again, I had to agree. I mean in the battle between wedding stuff or football stuff -- wedding stuff obviously wins!.*

It's official: I have smart kids!

LuckyPete — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:56:00 +0000

In my usually-nightly call with my kids, the first thing out of my daughter's mouth -- she's six and in kindergarten -- was "I got straight S's on my report card!" In kindergarten, that's excellent. S equals "Satisfies", which means that Baylie Hannah is meeting all the requirements for her level. Her vocabulary amazes me. Everything that Hayden has done, she has done earlier and with more accuracy. Plus, she's cute as a button and doesn't like boys, so I'm set until she's atleast twelve. I love hearing what new things she learned each night that we talk -- "We learned our vowels today!" makes my heart glad. Not being there to see her face light up as she actually says it -- although I can see it through the phone -- sucks. Such is the life of a divorced father...*sigh*

Hayden got straight "A's" on his report card. This from the kid who never learns anything new at school. Fortunately and unfortunately, Hay is a lot like I was in grade school -- bored. He's reading at a 4th grade level in 2nd grade, he's thinking of grand engineering feats while his school chums are trying to piece together lego blocks. But, he'll find like I did in about 6th or 7th grade, all that boredom turns into actual learning and preparing for the future. Strangely, what I'm doing now for an occupation is what I was doing in 7th-9th grade -- programming. I'm guessing that he too will discover what it is that he wants to do right about the same time, so that he can gear his mind accordingly. He's my first-born, and I love him so much it hurts. My hope is that I can provide -- from distance -- the motivation he needs to keep his head on straight, be smart and apply all those brains to his education.

So...my kids are like me and I'm the proudest dad in the world as a result. I really need to work on figuring out how I can see them more often, so that I can be the "happiest" dad in the world too.

Welcome New Year!

LuckyPete — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:46:00 +0000

As much as I hate the hustle-and-bustle of the holiday season, I absolutely love the renewal that it brings. Reconnecting with old friends, reviewing the year that has just passed by and establishing a plan for the new year ahead.

Looking back, despite some of the "bumps" that we faced, Kelsey and I had a great year. Lots of travelling (just about every month or two it seemed), great visits with my kids, lots of fantastic memories to last us a good long while. Kelsey took tons of pictures to chronicle our entire year and those that didn't make it to this blog's Image Gallery are out on ringo.com. If you're not already on our "friends" list, just email me and I'll make sure you get on it. I also was able to reconnect with friends that I had lost touch with in the multiples moves from Illinois to Missouri to Texas -- Ryan & Lisa Stough and their baby girl Sophia, Ben & Lisa Brooks and their boy Patrick, John Farrell (a co-worker from ADM), and Dave Burrus -- just to name a few.

To top of our 2005, I asked Kelsey to marry me on Christmas Eve. High atop the Reunion Tower here in Dallas, at the Antares Restaurant, I got down on one knee, read a poem to Kelsey and asked her for her hand in marriage. She, of course, said "yes". We've not yet set a date, but we're hoping to pull off a wedding sometime within the year.

Then, we trekked off to Mississippi (to get the kids) and then to Florida (by way of Alabama) to visit Kelsey's grandparents, who live just south of Tampa Bay. It was a fantastic trip, even with all the driving and we had a fantastic time with the kids. I miss them already...

So, welcome 2006 -- I'm really looking forward to what you have in store!

Back to BASIC

LuckyPete — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 19:12:00 +0000

(Wow...two posts today. I am so unmotivated!)

I used to code in BASIC on the Commodore64 back in the 80s and graduated to QBasic later. Keep in mind, this was in grade school/middle school when I was between the ages of 8 and 13 (note that is 20+ years gone by). My friends and I harnessed the power of our computers to write cool little "text-based" (aka choose-your-own-path) games based on our experience with Zork (!!!) and the Choose Your Own Adventure books that we read like they were going out-of-style. [NOTE: Many of the CYOA books were republished in 2000 -- http://www.cyoa.com/ -- so now our kids can read them too!]

My buddy Ryan and I both had Commodore64 machines, Eric had an Apple IIE (his parents were educators). Ryan had saved up enough money to buy a 5 1/4" floppy disk drive, the Apple IIE came with one, and I was stuck recording my games to magnetic cassette on my cassette drive...oh the technology!

Well, I just found out that there is an implentation of a browser-based BASIC called -- NG-BASIC -- that allows you to do the simplest of BASIC functions, like back in the day! I'm going to download this and see if I can remember anything from back in grade school. Too cool!

w00t for Christmas Bonuses!

LuckyPete — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 17:07:00 +0000

Well, much to my great surprise, all the hard work that my coding-buddy Skip Lutz and I did on the Life Expectancy project (aka LEFS) has been rewarded with a bonus just in time for Christmas! The total was about half of a normal bi-weekly check for me but after taxes (*sigh*) it weighed in a lot less than that...

Nevertheless, it's extra money at a time of the year when I can definitely use it! Thank God! w00t!

It's Christmastime again

LuckyPete — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:48:00 +0000

...another year has come and gone, and I am just amazed at all the people that wait till the last minute! This year, I'm (unfortunately) one of them. Because of the show and my schedule in general, I've put off doing a majority of my shopping till this week. Sure, I got a handful of things for the kids and Kels the day after Thanksgiving, but I have a few more gifts to pick up before the official day.

Last night, despite Kelsey feeling ill and me feeling exhausted (the weekend finally caught up with me), we ventured out to the mall in Frisco to try and wrap up some of our Christmas shopping. I found a number of things for Kels, we picked up some additional little items as well as stocking stuffers. I was just amazed at the number of people out there hustling and bustling through the mall. I've got just a few more things to pick up...and then I'll be done!

I'm really excited about this holiday season. Christmas Eve has always been special to my parents (they got married on Christmas Eve, 1969) and I hope to make it as memorable with Kelsey...*wink*

I'm back! /me kisses the ground

LuckyPete — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 14:31:00 +0000

Finally, after nine shows and a heck of a rehearsal schedule, "Sanders Family Christmas" the show was acting & singing in is finally over! Sunday's last show was amazingly awesome with the best crowd of all the shows creating a sense of excitement for those of us in the cast and crew. The show went smashingly...but all good things must come to and end. In this case I am actually thrilled to have my evenings back to spend with Kelsey and Doogan.

I am back! And this week calls for the following tasks to be carried out:

Cast party on Monday night (that's tonight!)
Finish Christmas shopping. With only a handful of days left I still need to get a couple of things for my kids, Kels and for a few "choice" people...
Going-away party on Wednesday for my right winger, Tom Daniels. He's moving back to Colorado. His dad has been in poor health and is getting up there in years, so Tommy's going back to help out with the ranch.
Gear up for our Christmas celebration and trip to Florida. We're picking the kiddos up on the 27th and then headed to Kelsey's grandparents home in Palmetto, FL. Should be a fun trip.

I'm finally feeling Christmasy now...and just in time :P

To New Mexico...and beyond!

LuckyPete — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 13:33:00 +0000

This morning I was surprised and pleased to see a post on Slashdot about a $225 million project happening in the state of New Mexico driven by Virgin Galactic and it's entrepenuer founder Richard Branson. The project: to build the world's first spaceport that will leverage the SpaceShipOne vehicle (winner of the Ansari X Prize in 2004) for commercial flights as soon as late 2008 or early 2009.

*blink blink*

Will commercial spaceflight be a reality that soon!?!? I'd venture to say yes, if Richard Branson and Burt Rutan are behind it...

Slip-slidin' Away

LuckyPete — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 19:09:00 +0000

The first winter "storm" of the season came yesterday -- and with it arrived my first official view of the two types of drivers that inhabit the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex -- I'll get to them in a moment.

First, about the "storm"...this "icy anomaly", which was miniscule on my scale of storms (you have to consider that I've lived in both Minnesota and Illinois before, so this was really not much of a storm), became a big deal because of two primary factors, which will follow with commentary:

Factor#1 -- Sand v. Salt. In the south, all the roads are made of concrete, which expands and contracts differently than the asphalt commonly used in the northern states. As a result, salt is not used to "de-ice" roadways. Instead, sand -- yes, sand -- is used to "de-ice" and provide traction. It is my contention that this only causes dirty cars and 'road-grit' and actually does little to effect the overall driving conditions of the roadways. *sigh*
Factor #2 -- Idiots. They're everywhere down here...especially when it's raining, snowing or sleeting. I'm not referring to your average, everyday driving fools, but the folks that seem to think that because they're in a 2-ton SUV that they are impervious to the conditions and drive as such. Unfortunately, they couldn't be further from that notion and are more than likely the first to end up in the ditch, smushed into the guardrail or sideswiping your car as they slide across all lanes of traffic when they hit their brakes and the invisible layer of ice beneath their tires...grrrrr.

Nevertheless, I made it to play rehearsal last night although it took me 35 minutes to go 10 miles. Why? Because I was cautious and drove as the conditions called for. And, I made it to work this afternoon (because the office was closed in the morning to wait for a thaw of sorts) just fine...

Living here is different, and it's only December...